Monster

Charlie flinched at the mention of his name. "Does she know something?" But Charlie's mother just kept inspecting him, seemingly not noticing the flinch. Charlie was staring into her eyes when he noticed a slight pressure coming from her gaze that was focused on his soul. After some time, Charlie's mother scrunched her brows slightly before releasing the pressure she had created. She looked into his eyes for some time before relaxing her face and recovering her passive smile.

Her face enthralled Charlie's attention. "Was this his mother now?" Charlie felt like he was undeserving of the love he was receiving for doing nothing but existing but he relished the feeling of warmth this gave him in his chest. After maintaining a stare for more than a few minutes, Charlie focused on his mother's hands that were now reaching into a pocket on a dark green dress that he hadn't noticed before.

After pulling out the book and flipping to a certain page, Charlie's mother starting reading to him. Charlie didn't understand—obviously—so he decided to use this time to try to learn. It was a slow journey but after his mother had read to him for what seemed like an hour, Charlie had learned the word for dog or at least what looked like a dog. The book had pictures in it and every time the dog came up, his mother would turn the book and point to the dog.

Unfortunately, Charlie's vocal chords weren't at a place where they could form words yet

—which was probably for the best since a newborn speaking would be problematic—but that wouldn't stop him from learning what to say.

——

Charlie's early days passed by quickly. He was often sleeping, being fed—he wouldn't cultivate so that he would eat like a normal baby—or with his mother learning how to speak. Six months quickly passed in this fashion which had changed a lot for Charlie.

Outside the window in his nursery, Charlie could see the once green landscape was coated in white snow. This had caused the temperature to drop which resulted in the ignition of a wood stove in the nursery to combat the cold. It burned nearly constantly which left the room warm but Charlie was still given an extra blanket.

The amount of times a day that Charlie had to be fed or have his diaper changed had dropped by more than half which was a relief to everyone involved. But most importantly, Charlie could finally start babble talking! He now had the mental vocabulary of a one year old which allowed him to partially understand his mother's stories. She must have read through the thick story book at least four times which Charlie was very grateful for. He pitied his poor mother who had spent months reading children's stories over and over again.

Charlie had yet to say his first word, at least to anyone else. He had been able to say a few words—badly—for a month or so but he wanted to start speaking at a more average age.

It was at this time that Charlie was being weened off of breast milk and switching to baby food. While normally babies might protest this change, Charlie was all for it. He didn't enjoy those strange sessions and he always felt really guilty afterwards, "Poor Giselle."—Giselle told her name to Charlie—Charlie had also started crawling around his crib which allowed him to gain a better perception of his surroundings.

He was in a square room with a plain wooden floor and ceiling, the walls had a striped green and white wallpaper that was bordered with white trim. His crib was centred on the wall behind him directly across from a door. Looking at the door, the window was to Charlie's right with the dresser beneath it. The cushioned chair was in the corner to the right of the dresser and the wood stove was to the left of the door with a pipe that went up to the ceiling. There was a red fuzzy carpet beneath Charlie's crib.

Recently, Charlie had been given a rattle which he only used when others were around—it wasn't a very interesting toy—to maintain appearances.

Charlie didn't remember exactly how long babies his age were supposed to sleep but he figured it was a long enough time to finally get some cultivating in. Charlie hadn't cultivated in months which was frustrating since he wanted to use magic as soon as possible. Once Giselle was leaning back in the cushioned chair with her book, Charlie went to his soul space. It didn't look very different than last time other than some mana particles seemingly having floated closer to Charlie. Charlie began to cultivate with haste to make up for his lack of progress. Particles shot through the air into Charlie's core, each time giving a burst of energy.

—

After a few hours of cultivating, Charlie decided to stop before he ruined his appetite and scared Giselle again. But before returning to his body, Charlie inspected his mana core. Whereas before it had once been solid black, the core now appeared to have some spots of red in it. There weren't very many but it was progress. The red spots drifted over the surface of the core before fading into the black. This reminded Charlie of mixing red paint with black, it seemed to be slowly turning redder but the process would require a lot of red for any effect to show up.

After this, Charlie returned to his body. Suddenly, Charlie thought of something "I've been collecting mana from my soul space so far but I wonder if I can do the same here." Giving it some thought, Charlie decided he would use his soul in the same way to absorb the mana but he would focus on his physical surroundings instead. Charlie had a hard time executing his vision though. It was easy to absorb when he was in his soul space because there were so few distractions but in his body, Charlie had to suppress his five senses.

Recalling meditation techniques, Charlie began to control his breathing and focus on the rhythm. After some time, Charlie could feel himself slipping to his soul space but he stopped where he was and maintained the feeling of being both in his body and soul. It was like balancing on a picket fence during an earthquake but Charlie held on long enough to begin absorbing. At first nothing seemed to have happened but after a few seconds the air began to ripple slightly with energy. The rippling quickly closed in on Charlie who felt the familiar sensation of cultivation but exponentially more powerful. Charlie could only maintain his focus for a few seconds before failing but he was filled with resolve. This method of cultivation would allow Charlie to progress much faster albeit with more difficulty.

While Charlie was thinking about the implications of such a thing, the door burst open and a man entered swinging his head back and forth as though searching for something. Charlie was startled out of his thoughts but Giselle fully jumped up from the chair, throwing her book in the progress.

After finding nothing, the man quickly asked Giselle a question. Charlie could only make out the word "monster".